What comes to mind, as a control often-used, is the scripture Matthew 22:21 which states: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” In 1994 the Catholic Church, (official authority by religious standards) decreed this word to mean that Jesus "agreed with taxation".

With one straightforward counter-question, Jesus skillfully points out that the claims of God and Caesar are mutually exclusive. If one's faith is in God, then God is owed everything; Caesar's claims are necessarily illegitimate, and he is therefore owed nothing. If, on the other hand, one's faith is in Caesar, God's claims are illegitimate, and Caesar is owed, at the very least, the coin which bears his image.

Jesus practiced subtle sedition. In the context of subtle sedition, no one can interpret the Tribute Episode as Jesus' support of taxation. To the contrary, one can only understand the Tribute Episode as Jesus' opposition to the illicit Roman taxes.